That came after President Francois Hollande said he would raise taxes from 41 per cent to 75 per cent for those earning more than 1 million euros (£817,400). Russia has a flat 13 per cent personal income tax rate.

The Russian leader did not personally hand the actor the passport when the pair met in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Gerard Depardieu gestures during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi (Picture: Reuters)

The two men shook hands and hugged each other, before getting down to business.

The meeting came after Mr Depardieu wrote an open letter to describe Russia as ‘a great democracy, and not a country where the prime minister calls one of its citizens shabby’.

The actor had accused the French socialist government of punishing ‘success, creation and talent’.

Mr Putin has described Mr Depardieu as a friend.

The actor has appeared in a string of advertising campaigns in the country, and worked there in 2011 on a film about the eccentric Russian monk Grigory Rasputin.

Vladimir Putin and Gerard Depardieu get down to business (Picture: Reuters)